Existing methods of delivering data from Earth-orbiting satellites to a ground stations fall into two general categories: sending radio transmissions to a fixed ground site via a relay satellite in, for example, geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) or sending radio transmissions directly to a ground site when the Earth-orbiting satellite passes over the ground site. Because of the long distances involved, and the paucity of GEO satellites, the geosynchronous relay approach is restricted in both availability and data rate. Likewise, because of the short connection time and restricted burst rates, the direct transmission is also restricted in its capability. In addition, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other regulations concerning radio-frequency (RF) spectrum allocation may constrain the available bandwidth and link availability for satellite transmissions. As a consequence, data transfer to ground networks from Earth-orbiting satellites presents a significant bottleneck in the data collection capabilities of present-day Earth-orbiting satellite systems. This bottleneck is getting worse now that satellite missions are generating more data than existing RF systems can handle.